Dear Everyone,
In Dogen's day, and in old China before, the Shissui (直歳, Work Leader) was one of the Six Major Officers & Administrators (六知事, Roku Chiji) of the Soto Zen Monastery. It would be impossible to have a monastery without someone, and their team, to keep a roof on the place, quite literally.
In our Treeleaf place, the Work Leader/Shissui has been for many years, and remains, Rev. Sekishi, who has held this place together (often losing much sleep and with great personal sacrifice to his other life responsibilities), now assisted more and more by our Koushi, his young apprentice and "padawan", together with a team which includes Kyonin, Kotei and Bion in various roles. Also, I must specially mention Seimyo Chris, a decade long member of Treeleaf who, asking nothing for himself and content to remain behind the scenes, has helped Sekishi navigate this place through 10,000 technical mazes. (Am I forgetting anyone? Please forgive me if so, and let me know.)
Thank you to all of them.
Now, I was just reading the description of the Shissui from the Zennen-Shingi (Chanyuan-chingkueia), a 13th century manual of Chinese Chan monastic rules very important in our tradition, as supplemented by Master Dogen in his Eihei Shingi:
Of course, in our digital place, made mostly of light and electrons, we do not have grain mills, oil refining, horse stables nor latrine tanks. However, we do have various servers and programs, upgrades and hardware, data to clean up, various bugs, malware floods and intruders to be expeditiously dealt with too, all of which require just as much constant care. I simply need to reword the above slightly to say so, but the principle remains the same. Through the centuries, the Shissui have kept our Zen places going.[Zennen-Shingi ] The job of work leader is generally to take charge of arranging all the works in the temple. The [work leader] must conduct all repairs in the temple including dormitories, gates and windows, fences and walls, and all the dailywork tools and equipment, and as the time requires, take care of repairs and replacements of decorations and ornaments. [The work leader] must take care of the grain mill, the fields and gardens, the workrooms and shops, the oil refining shop, the latrine tanks, the horse stables, boats and carts, general cleaning, and the sowing of seeds. Circulating throughout the temple, [the work leader] must protect it by keeping out burglars, and must assign and supervise the various workers, All this must be managed with an attitude of serving everyone with strong effort, understanding when and knowing how [each task must be carried out]. If there are major repairs or significant projects, they should be conducted after consultation and getting the approval of the abbot, then conferring with the other temple administrators about the [work leader's] plan. They should not be done only according to [the work leader's] own viewpoint. (p.179)
[Dogen] The work leader stays in the kuin [the kitchen and administrators' offices building], the same as the other temple administrators. However, [the work leader] must always be attending the work leader's shop and thoroughly review whether or not the workers have accomplished their tasks. …… The work leader cares for and maintains the whole temple with increasing prudence and humility, without neglecting anything. They repair and replace temple property and equipment to keep it neat and shiny. Towards the common laborers and even attendant workers, [the work leader] has an attitude of helping everyone, without any personal interests. (p.179-180)
So, again, gratitude to our Shissui and his team, the Temple Guardians at the Gates.
Gassho, J
STLag
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